The KMT still can't cope with reality

The Liberty Times is going to sue the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for defamation, over KMT remarks that the paper has indulged in sloppy reporting and defamation of the party by suggesting that it has been acting in cahoots with China, and being biased in favor of the Chen Shui-bian government.

Obviously we must declare an interest being a sister newspaper of the Liberty Times. But we are not privy to the minutiae of Liberty Times editorial and newsroom decisions so we cannot be, even if we chose, counsel for the Liberty Times defense. Nevertheless we can from general principles and common knowledge assert that the KMT's behavior is ludicrous, mendacious and contemptible, and we hope that the true extent of its dishonesty, both practical and intellectual, is exposed in the upcoming case.

First, let us talk about the KMT's collusion with China. This has been vouchsafed by a number of independent sources. Two years ago, for example, Bonnie Glaser, a US academic, caused a KMT temper tantrum when she wrote: "Scores of KMT delegations visiting China in the past year have urged Beijing to avoid opening a dialogue with Chen that might strengthen [Chen's] position and increase his chances of re-election, Chinese analysts say. Instead, the KMT urges Chinese leaders to await the return of their party to power, promising that the KMT will pursue a cross-strait policy that is more amenable to Beijing. Some KMT officials have even urged the mainland to further weaken Chen Shui-bian domestically by attacking him personally as an advocate of independence."

As Glaser said in follow-up comments, she has no side in the Taiwan-China fight, she was simply reporting what she had been told by the Chinese. And other US academics had been told the same thing. Either the Chinese were lying about who they had been talking to or the KMT has something to hide about its dealings across the Strait -- since it certainly cannot deny the large number of delegations that have gone to China since the party lost power. We think the balance of probability is overwhelmingly against the KMT.

There are other points, such as the curious similarity between KMT policy and Beijing's wish list for Taiwan, especially that of "direct links and security be damned." Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou's wish to make the Sungshan Domestic Airport the terminus for cross-strait flights also looks suspect, given China's agenda of having these routes also labelled domestic in furtherance of its illegal claims over Taiwan.

All this, the KMT might say, is circumstantial or hearsay evidence. Maybe so. But many people have hanged on less.

But there is another aspect of this fracas which appalls, namely the KMT's lack of understanding of what media freedom means. Even if it were true that the Liberty Times is a follower of Chen -- and, take it from us, it is not -- so what? Private news media groups have political interests -- that is the nature of capitalist society. People found and run newspapers to advocate their views on the social and political affairs of the day. All newspapers have an attitude, their likes and dislikes. What is wrong with a newspaper supporting Chen? Only, we suppose, that it is not supporting the KMT or China as the other two mass circulation dailies do with slavish devotion.

What the KMT really hankers after is the period of martial law when it could control what people said and censor what they wrote. It simply isn't equipped to deal with an open media, just as its bizarre claims that politicians are using politics to try to win the next presidential election -- something in one guise or another that we hear about three times a week -- show that it isn't equipped to deal with democratic politics either.